Turkey Prices Struggling at Thanksgiving

Politico says news outlets around the country are picking up on USDA data that shows how turkey prices have dropped sharply in recent years. Experts say the reason behind the drop in price is the simple economics of supply and demand.

Dewey Warner is a research fellow with Euromonitor International who says the prices drop has been building for a couple of years. Back in 2015, the avian influenza outbreak resulted in the deaths of millions of birds. That was followed up by what he called extensive overproduction, which led to oversupply. There’s not much overseas demand to help cut into that extra supply, partly because countries like China banned U.S. poultry imports after the influenza outbreak. Domestically, retailers have been cutting prices, which is showing up in recent turkey sales. Things may be somewhat more optimistic for turkey prices in 2018.

Shale Shagham is a USDA livestock analyst who predicts that turkeys will rise from 97 cents a pound this year to 99 cents in 2018.